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Friday, 10 February 2017

Harriet bra

Hello hello!!!

I have not been doing any personal sewing for so long I have forgotten all about my blog, but I have broken my silence and been lured in by the brand spanking new and fabulous Harriet bra pattern by Cloth Habit. I love the Cloth Habit blog and it is one of those ones which I have read from start to finish as I didn't want to miss anything useful or inspiring, so when Amy released her latest pattern I bought it right away.

I have made two versions since and this pattern is probably the only bra pattern I ever need EVER. You may remember my experimentation with bra sewing and drafting over the summer which gave me loads of great experiences with construction and fit, well that has been super informative when beginning with this pattern. The bra block I drafted over this time is great to use as a comparison when selecting my size. I measured myself against the chart and came up as a 34C, but I often find bands a bit too snug from the patterns I've made up so I went for a 36B instead for my first Harriet.

The fit is good and after wearing it for the first half of the week is so comfortable I forget I'm wearing it, but it is probably not as snug as it could be. I needed some minor tweaks to the cups anyway, but I think the bra band is very true to size, so I could go smaller. I absolutely love this version though, so it will get regular wear and I may even move the hooks inwards slightly if it starts to feel too loose. All elastics were dyed by me using Dharma Trading acid dye in 'Radioactive'. In fact I followed Amy's advice for dyeing elastic here.

The second version I made is this silk satin one.

Taking into account what I learned about the fit from my first lace one I went with the same cup size with adjustments, the next size down bra band with the 36B centre bridge as I have a wide gap there. Oh the beauty of making your own bras and learning why RTW is never comfortable!!! I completely altered the style lines on this one to create a princess seam cup without the top section. I really like and prefer this cup, but I made the curve too pronounced at first and some dodgy alterations I made mid construction meant I had to hide the seams with this grosgrain trim. So annoying as I really just wanted a plain navy bra. It's really beautiful and comfortable though, so I can't be too unhappy with that! Again I dyed everything myself to co-ordinate and used a foam lining to give a smooth shape.

Note - The seam on the foam was nice and flat before dodgy alteration...

I feel like this pattern has been a breeze to get the fit spot on which I don't know if this is because of all the work I did over the summer or what, but I really think this is a top quality pattern. I didn't follow the instructions, but I shall be making this a few more times over the coming months so I have a decent selection in my drawer. The bras I made over the summer are in a box in my sewing room and have been mainly good for teaching me about bra making. My bra block is great to have and again I learnt a lot from making it, but it is mainly good for helping me assess fit and I don't love it as much as I love the Harriet.

So there you go. Gushing over and if you want to try making an underwired bra then you could do worse than trying this pattern!

6 comments:

Love it! I've just finished one too and I found that I should have gone more with my rtw size as well. I love that navy even with the adjustments. Hopefully on the next one I can get the fit right. Loving the dye job too such a good idea!